V. I. Lenin

Draft Resolution

On “The Tasks of the Trade Unions,

And The Methods of Their Accomplishment”[1]

Written:Early November 1920First Published:The 
Fourth (Russian) edition of theCollected Works; Published according to 
the manuscript  pp. 374-75.Source:Lenin’sCollected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965,Volume 31, pages  374-375Translated:Julius KatzerTranscription\HTML Markup:David Walters&R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of theGNU Free Documentation License

In accordance with the decisions of the Ninth Congress of the
    Communist Party of Russia, the Conference once again draws the
    attention of the trade unions to the necessity of these decisions
    being scrupulously fulfilled, and points out in particular that
    the imperative need of a single economic plan establishing the
    order of priority of objectives in the general scheme of economic
    construction is indisputable. At the same time, as was recognised
    by the Party Conference of September 1920, a gradual but steady
    transition must be effected from urgency procedures to a more even
    distribution of forces, particularly in the secondment of the
    individual unions’ best organisers to the All-Russia Central
    Council of Trade Unions with a view to consolidating that body as
    a whole, improving the functioning of its apparatus, achieving
    greater system in the work of all trade unions, and thereby
    strengthening the entire trade union movement.

This measure should be applied in particular to the Central
    Committee of the General Transport Workers’ Union
    (Tsektran); an end must be put to its
    disproportionate growth as compared with the other unions, and the
    best elements thus released should extend to the entire trade
    union movement those methods of the broader application of
    democracy, the promotion of initiative, participation in the
    management of industry, the development of emulation, and so
    forth, which have yielded the best practical results.

In conformity with the decisions of the Ninth Congress of the
    Communist Party of Russia, and recognising as absolutely
    indispensable the development, extension and consolidation of
    trade union participation in production management, the Conference
    instructs the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions to sum up
    immediately the practical experience gained in this respect by the
    leading unions and enterprises, and to draw up detailed
    instructions, which will help all trade unions make use of that
    practical experience and will enjoin them to utilise the latter in
    a more energetic and systematic fashion.

This refers especially to the utilisation of specialists.

[1]This document formed the basis of the resolution on the tasks of
    the trade union movement, which was passed by the R.C.P.(B.) group
    of the Fifth All-Russia Conference of Trade Unions on November 8,
    1920, and published in Pravda on November 13. 200 delegates
    supported the resolution, with 12 delegates abstaining.
      At the Conference, which took place in Moscow between November 2
    and 6, the Party raised the question of reorganising the work of
    the trade unions in keeping with the tasks of peaceful socialist
    construction, extending democracy and abandoning purely
    administrative methods. Trotsky came out against the proposed
    reorganisation. At a sitting of the Communist group on November 3,
    he spoke “fine words”, as Lenin said, about
    “shaking up” the trade unions, “tightening the
    screws” and immediate “governmentalisation of trade
    unions”. Trotsky’s speech, which sparked off a
    discussion in the Party, was opposed by a slight majority of
    Communist delegates. Disagreement with Trotsky over trade unions
    concerned the methods over the role of unions in a workers state
    where socialism was not yet constructed and which was in a state
    of civil war.  On November 8 Lenin read his theses at a plenary
    meeting of the Central Committee, in which he opposed
    Trotsky’s views. Trotsky’s theses won 7 votes, and
    Lenin's, 8 votes.

Lenin's theses formed the basis of his draft
    resolution on "The Tasks of the Trade Unions, end the Methods of
    Their Accomplish-ment ", which was passed by 10 votes against 4,
    with I abstention.